Unitary relations in time-dependent harmonic oscillators

Abstract

For a harmonic oscillator with time-dependent (positive) mass and frequency, a unitary operator is shown to transform the quantum states of the system to those of a harmonic oscillator system of unit mass and time-dependent frequency, as well as operators. For a driven harmonic oscillator, a unitary transformation which relates the driven system and a system of the same mass and frequency without a driving force is given, as a generalization of previous results, in terms of the solution of classical equation of motion of the driven system. Thus transformations give a simple way of finding exact wavefunctions of a driven harmonic oscillator system, provided the quantum states of the corresponding system of unit mass are given.